Return of the Rook

Every year at around this time the rooks begin to invade the garden to raid (and sometimes steal) the bird feeders, I have actually witnessed one unhooking and carrying away a full fat ball feeder in the past. They are not my favourite birds as they always look so ominous with their long sharp beaks and beady eyes but the colouring of their feathers is quite iridescent in the sun and not really black at all and they are such clever creatures, this one was using the little piece of stick that you can see near it's foot to turn over large pieces of earth that needed a bit of levering up - they have my respect if not my admiration :-))